Federal Sword Belt Buckle - Field Repair - Lead Filled with Carving
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Item: Federal Sword Waist Belt Buckle - Field Repair - Lead Filled with Carving
Design: Plain background with raised eagle clutching three arrows in its left talons and an olive branch in its right along with twelve stars and a ribbon above the eagle. Raised rays at top with wreath partially surrounding the eagle.
Construction: Gilt die-struck rolled brass plate, lead filled with applied tongue.
Condition: Fair, excavated. The plate is missing approximately 8 millimeters of one end, and it is near this end where a field repair was made. The rear lead filling is complete in that portion of the plate that remains. It has been suggested that the carvings in the rear lead are the letters "J" & "T" and represent initials of its owner. Its applied belt attachment tongue is no longer present. (See Comments section below for additional information regarding the field repair and the reason for it.)
Recovered: Polks's Corp Army of Tennessee winter camps located along the Duck River near Shelbyville, TN.
Approximate size: 51 x 75 mm.
Reference: A similar example of Federal sword belt plate is found in the following Civil War belt plate reference book:
- "American Military Belt Plates" by Michael J. O'Donnell and J. Duncan Campbell, on page 384, Plate 633.
See the above page in the additional images.
Comments: According to O'Donnell and Campbell's "American Military Belt Plates" reference book, these plates were "sold privately to officers and the militia, a sizable number of these fragile devices were worn in the start of the Civil War. Their belt loops broke easily, and by mid-war, they had been discontinued." In this case, the soldier was not to be deterred. When the tongue pulled out of the lead, a slot was carved out to allow another hook or tongue, fitted to the other end of the belt, to be fastened to the plate. This Federal sword belt buckle is a very personal relic and will be an excellent addition to any Civil War buckle, plate or general relic collection.
- Product Code:
- PC512
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